Transcript

Of

John Dunning Prickman [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. 45, (1913). pp. 45-46.

by

Maxwell Adams (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was presented at the Association’s July 1913 Buckfastleigh meeting. Hilary and Mike Wreford, provided the Okehampton Local History Society’s “The Story of John Dunning Prickman” article, which appears together with a portrait of this remarkable public figure in “Dartmoor Links”. The obituary may be found in a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal that can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Mr. John Prickman was the second son of Mr. Richard Prickman, of Broadnymet, in the parishes of Bow and North Tawton, who belonged to a well-known family settled for many generations in Bath, by his wife, who was a member of the old Devonshire family of Cann. Mr. John Prickman was admitted as a solicitor in August, 1878, and settled in Okehampton in 1880, and was regarded in the profession as one of the ablest conveyancers in the county.
He was a very active man in the public life of the town, holding, among other offices, those of Coroner for the district, Clerk to the Okehampton and Hatherleigh Magistrates, Clerk to the Okehampton Non-Ecclesiastical Trustees, Director of the Okehampton Gas Company, and Director of the Okehampton Bathing Association. In the year 1890 he filled with honour the office of Mayor of the ancient borough.
It is interesting to note that Mr. Prickman was the last Recorder of Okehampton, to which office he was appointed by the late Mr. E. B. Saville, the son of Mr. Albany Saville who represented Okehampton for many years in Parliament, thus recalling the days when Okehampton returned two Members to Westminster.
He joined the Association in 1888 and was a member of its Council. When the Association met at Okehampton in 1895, under the presidency of Lord Halsbury, he acted as Local Secretary and contributed largely to the success of that meeting. As a reader and raconteur in the dialect of Devonshire he had few equals. He was an authority on all that concerned Dartmoor and knew every part of the Moor. The following is a list of the papers he contributed to the Transactions of the Devonshire Association: West Country Wit and Humour, with some Examples (1898); Deaths by Lightning ("Scientific Memoranda”, 1899); A Chapter in the History of the Chapel of St. James in the Borough of Okehampton (1901); Fragmentary Notes on the French Prisoners in the West of England and other Places in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century (1901); A Few Stories illustrative of Devonshire Wit and Humour (1905); Examples of West Country Wit and Humour (1906); West Country Oddments (1909).
An ardent sportsman, he was for many years Secretary of the Mid-Devon Hunt and a regular contributor to sporting journals. Mr. Prickman was a Churchman, a Conservative in politics, and a Freemason. He married firstly, in 1894, Mary, daughter of Mr. Thomas Hatton, of Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, who died in 1900 ; and secondly, in 1904, Amy Beatrice, the daughter of Canon Shephard, of Appleby, Westmorland, who survives him. He died, aged fifty-eight, at his residence, West Hill, Okehampton, on 13 March, 1913, and was buried at Okehampton. Of an exceedingly genial temperament and a man of many parts and wide sympathies, his loss will be felt by a large circle of friends. By his death the Association has lost a valued member, and the Borough of Okehampton, to which town he rendered invaluable service and in whose welfare, development, and history he took an active interest, a personality and an influence it will be difficult to replace.